1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Tyzzer's disease of rabbits and, more particularly, to a vaccine for Tyzzer's disease in rabbits and a method for its production.
2. The Prior Art
In 1917, Ernest Edward Tyzzer of the Harvard University Medical School described a disease in mice that has borne his name since (Tyzzer, E. E., 1917, A Fatal Disease of the Japanese Waltzing Mouse Caused by a Spore-Bearing Bacillus (Bacillus piliformis, N. SP.), J. Med. Res. 37: 307-338). Tyzzer's disease subsequently was discovered in rats (Jonas, A. M., D. H. Percy, and J. Craft, 1970, Tyzzer's Disease in the Rat, Its Possible Relationship with Megaloileitis, Arch. Pathol. 90: 516-528), gerbils (Carter, G. R., D. L. Whitenack and L. A. Julius, 1969, Natural Tyzzer's Disease in Mongolian Gerbils [Meriones unguiculatus], Lab. Anim. Care 19: 948-951), monkeys (Niven, J. S. F. 1968, Tyzzer's Disease in Laboratory Animals, Z. Vers. 10: 168-174), and rabbits (Allen, A. M., J. R. Ganaway, T. D. Moore, and R. F. Kinard, 1965, Tyzzer's Disease Syndrome in Laboratory Rabbits, Amer. J. Pathol 46: 859-881). In each of these species, the etiological agent, originally named Bacillus piliformis by Tyzzer, was described as a long, slender bacterium that produces spores, is Gramnegative, and cannot be grown in or on cell-free media. Nevertheless, Ganaway et al. were able to isolate the organism from rabbits by inoculation of infected liver homogenates into the yolk sac of 7-day-old embryonated chicken eggs (Ganaway, J. R., A. M. Allen, and T. D. Moore, 1971, Tyzzer's Disease of Rabbits: Isolation and Propagation of Bacillus piliformis (Tyzzer) in Embryonated Eggs, Inf. and Immun. 3: 429-437), a procedure similar to the procedure used by Craigie to isolate B. Piliformis from mice (Cragie, J. 1966. Bacillus piliformis [Tyzzer] and Tyzzer's Disease of the Laboratory Mouse, I. Propagation of the Organism in Embryonated Eggs, Proc. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, Sect. B. Biol. 165: 35-60).